


hit (or, more accurately, miss)

by bonebo



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 14:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7980277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonebo/pseuds/bonebo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>'I love you' -- in a way I can't return</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	hit (or, more accurately, miss)

_“I love you.”_

Jesse says it so easily, all the damn time--moans it out when they fuck in the quiet darkness of Gabriel’s quarters, whispers it against his shoulder when they pass in the washracks, mouths it from the back of the room when Gabriel is going over Blackwatch’s next mission. 

It wouldn’t be such a problem--wouldn’t bother Gabriel so much--if McCree didn’t pin him down by his shoulders after one of their late-night rendezvous and loom over him with intent, fix his eyes on Gabriel’s and demand, “Say it back, Commander.”

“...get off me,” Gabriel mutters, shoving McCree away to sit up; Jesse’s body yields but his gaze does not, and Gabriel can feel it burning on the back of his neck as Jesse repeats flatly, “Say it back. Say you love me.”

And Gabriel--Gabriel tries. He does.

But the words stay hung in his throat, caught like thorns, choking.

“I...I can’t,” he finally says, getting up and starting to get dressed again; moving with an urgency fueled by tainted memories and dread, a realization that _of course this day was coming._ “Just...just forget about it, McCree--”

“You _can’t_?” Jesse is in front of him in an instant, all crossed arms and dark scowl, demanding. Gabriel doesn’t blame him; the kid knows he’s worth more than what he’s getting. “What do you mean, you can’t? Tell me!”

Their gazes lock for a heartbeat--and Gabriel is ashamed of himself when he’s the one to break first.

“You say I love you--you say it in a way that I can’t return,” he admits, shaking his head and looking away from McCree--away from the _look_ that the kid gives him, all disappointment and hurt and _god_ , Gabriel could just die under it. 

“...a way you can’t return,” McCree repeats, slowly, the words bitter ash in his mouth. His tone goes sharp, anger bleeding out to cover his heartache, his fear. “And just what does that mean, exactly, Commander? What _way_ can’t you return?”

Gabriel snaps his head back up, something dark and pained and _bitter_ in his eyes, and sees himself in McCree’s position a short year ago, standing before the Strike-Commander of Overwatch with fool’s hope and losing it all with three words that spelled his doom.

“Sincerely, Jesse,” he says, and his voice rings hollow around the room as he turns and walks away.


End file.
